And that’s exactly what Microsoft Canada in connection with Walmart PhotoCentre and Kodak Canada Inc. did today when they announced the launch of the national Put Your Town on the Map with Bing photo contest.

The grand prize winner, and future hometown hero, will have his or her photo featured as the Bing.ca homepage image on Canada Day and will also win a photography prize pack courtesy of Kodak Canada Inc. and Walmart Photocentre. In addition, Canadians have the chance to win daily prizes.

What about Americans? As the fictional Canadian brothers, Bob and Doug McKenzie, might say, “Hosers.”

Or, as Jed Schneiderman, Director of Marketing, Bing.ca, actually said in a press release, “With this contest we want Canadians to kick their hometown spirit into high gear and get a chance to show it off to the rest of Canada on the Bing homepage.”

David Broomfield, National Photo Manager, Walmart Canada, added, “From coast to coast, Canada offers the perfect backdrop for a national photo contest.”

And Sean Scammell, Strategic Channel Manager, Kodak Canada, chipped in, “We are passionate about helping Canadians unleash the power of pictures through printing.”

Yep, there’s not even a passing reference to those of us who don’t live in “The Great White North.” The contest, which closes June 22, 2010 at 11:00 p.m. EST, is only open to residents of Canada.

The Put Your Town on the Map with Bing photo contest runs for four weeks and the photo with the most votes from the most popular hometown wins. To become a winner, Canadians must drum up support from their friends, family and their community to vote for their submitted picture(s). As photo finishing and prizing associates, Walmart PhotoCentre and Kodak Canada Inc. will provide daily and grand prizing for the contest.

This week, both LinkedIn and Facebook are beefing up their paid social offerings in different ways, while Google seeks to cut off Adwords revenues for fake news sites. And might Google be favouring desktop over its own AMP in its upcoming mobile-first index?

Here we’ll take a look at the basic things you need to know in regards to search engine optimisation, a discipline that everyone in your organisation should at least be aware of, if not have a decent technical understanding.